Taking back control: Why brands are investing in owned spaces

Social media has never been a utopia, but the last few years have underscored the deep and systemic risks these platforms pose. Rampant misinformation, escalating harassment, algorithmic opacity, and the politicization of moderation are turning many large platforms into riskier environments for users and organizations. Many community managers and leaders find themselves firefighting crises rather than fostering meaningful engagement.

The consequences of these challenges are tangible: users are logging off, retreating into safer, smaller spaces, or simply disengaging. Relying solely on social platforms to cultivate and steward the community means constantly pushing forces beyond your control - and often without the moderation tools for that effort.

Trust and safety efforts must be proactive, not reactive. This means robust moderation tools, practices, policies and a well-resourced community management team. It also means prioritizing accessibility, inclusivity, and ethical data stewardship.

Owned platforms give organizations the ability to design and implement these holistically. Rather than being at the mercy of shifting social media tools and policies, community builders can create environments tailored to their values, users, and their long-term vision.

Hard-won gains in social media platform accountability and user protections have begun to erode - fast. In the United States, where most major platforms are based, regulatory posture and leadership shifts have led to a slackening of guidelines and policies and a rollback of moderation staffing and tooling investments, making many platforms more permissive of harmful behavior.

This decline in oversight creates a worrying situation for any organization that depends on these platforms for community engagement. When trust erodes, participation and retention can suffer. When moderation is inadequate or inconsistent, toxic behaviors can proliferate, damaging users and brand reputation. Social media’s ‘free’ perks of social media suddenly get more expensive as organizations are forced to hire (more of) their moderators to ensure regulatory compliance and an acceptable experience for users.

In contrast, owned platforms give community stewards more ways to set and enforce meaningful, ethical standards. They enable clearer governance structures, better control over data, and the ability to shape engagement in ways that prioritize safety and inclusion. A recent large-scale survey from The Verge and Vox on the future of the internet found an overwhelming majority of people want good governance (community guidelines, moderation enforcement) as a priority. These results were reinforced in another, even larger study from the University of Oxford and the Technical University of Munich - most want meaningful moderation.

Social media is built for broad visibility rather than deep engagement. Reach and follower growth don’t necessarily translate into meaningful participation or long-term value - particularly for a business or organization. As you don’t own the space or the data, you’re at the mercy of changing algorithms and limited insights.

Owned community platforms make it much easier to capture and communicate community ROI compared to social media. Because you have direct access to all the data, you can see how people are engaging, what they’re contributing, and how that connects to business goals. You’re not dealing with hidden algorithms or shifting rules, and most importantly, you can design measurement frameworks that match your organization’s values.

With an owned community, you can track member journeys over time, integrate data with other business tools, and get a clearer picture of how the community contributes to organizational success. That makes it a lot easier to show impact — and ensure the community receives the support it needs to keep thriving.

As trust in large-scale social platforms erodes, a parallel movement has emerged: the rise of intimate, purpose-driven, and well-curated community spaces. Venkatesh Rao coined the term “cozy web” to describe these private spaces, “where depressurized conversation is possible due to their non-indexed, non-optimized, and non-gamified environments.” (Strickler, 2019)

From private servers to niche forums and invite-only groups, these spaces mirror those that characterized the early internet, and we’re flocking to them, hungry for safety, value, and meaningful engagement. People are exhausted by social media thoroughfares and want digital doors they can open and close on their terms.

Brand-owned platforms offer a structured and sustainable way to build a more ‘cozy’ space if desired and to support the scaling of multiple cozy spaces within an ecosystem while ensuring governance, opportunities for commercial integration, and long-term viability.

AI features and tools will soon be ubiquitous across social media and community platforms. These can be helpful to community management - applied to tasks like personalizing experiences, analyzing engagement, and automating aspects of moderation - but only if they can be adjusted to suit your needs.

On social media, AI is largely controlled by the platforms, meaning tools may not be configurable. These toolsets will always optimize for the platform’s benefit, not necessarily the community’s. Additionally, they can create harm, if the goals they are supporting are misaligned with your community.

Brand-owned platforms will usually give you the agency to integrate AI in ways that suit your community’s needs - using machine learning to surface relevant discussions, chatbots to streamline onboarding and support, or analytics to inform community health reporting. Since the data stays within the organization’s ecosystem, AI-driven insights are more accurate and actionable, helping teams make smarter decisions about content, engagement strategies, and member support.

Stewarding a trusted, safe, and valuable owned platform is invaluable. But owned doesn’t mean isolated. Instead, it’s an anchor in a connected web of interactions, allowing your community to thrive in ways that are both sustainable and ethical.

The reality is that community is happening everywhere. Users engage across diverse and increasingly decentralized digital spaces depending on their needs, interests, and habits. A successful community strategy should be a thoughtful, multi-layered approach that leverages both owned and external spaces effectively.

Now’s a perfect time to reclaim agency over your community strategy. Because if you’re not proactively shaping it - someone else may be creating it for you.